September 2009

Broadband Benchmarks

The September 2nd Federal Communications Commission National Broadband Plan workshop featured a panel of academics, policy directors and telecom executives that came together to discuss the role of metrics and benchmarks for evaluating the various dimensions of broadband across geographic areas and across time. The Benchmarks considered included variables such as broadband deployment and adoption, affordability and prices, quality of broadband services and levels of competition.

Vermont organizations file for over $130 million of broadband stimulus funds

Five Vermont organizations have applied for over $130 million of stimulus grants and loans for last mile broadband projects that could, in the aggregate, reduce the number of Vermont households without available high speed Internet to less than 5% of the total. Technologies proposed by the various applicants include fiber to the home, DSL, and wireless. In addition the Vermont Council for Rural Development has requested $2.5 million for a sustainable broadband adoption program to help assure that Vermonters in 24 pilot communities have the equipment, training, and motivation to use broadband. The Vermont Center for Geographic Information has applied for a $1.96 million grant to continue and extend Vermont's broadband mapping effort. The Department of Libraries has applied for 80% stimulus funding of $754,000 for a public computing center project to assure that computers are available in selected libraries for those who do not yet have equipment or broadband connections available at home.

Telstra Wants Role in Australia's National Broadband Network

David Thodey, CEO of Telstra, Australia's biggest phone company, says the company is having "productive" and "professional" talks with the Australian government on its potential role in the building of a nationwide super-fast broadband network. The company does not yet know what part it would play in the government's planned new $36 billion) network. The project is expected to take several years to complete.

Study On Flexible Pricing Assumes Broadband's Price Only Going Up

[Commentary] A recently released study's central thesis is that by spreading the costs of network upgrades equally among all users we risk suppressing broadband adoption by raising prices for everyone, whereas if providers can charge more of those who use more we can keep broadband prices for others lower, which should help to bridge the digital divide since cost is the primary reason those who aren't online today don't subscribe to broadband. But the researchers assumed that flexible broadband pricing would only result in more expensive tiers of service being introduced but not any less expensive tiers. It implies that market dynamics alone aren't sufficient to keep prices down. In a truly competitive market a provider would not necessarily be able to raise their rates as it would have to take into consideration what their competitors are doing. Another dangerous assumption of this report is that all operators are investing heavily in their networks and therefore need to be able to charge their customers more to recoup that money. While some operators are investing heavily, many others are not, either because they can't, aren't willing to, or their investments don't cost all that much to make.

Virginia Sees Savings from Telework Day

Governor Timothy Kaine announced that Virginia teleworkers saved approximately $113,000, avoided driving 140,000 miles and removed 75.89 tons of pollutants from the air through participation in Telework Day on August 3, 2009. A report compiled by the public-private partnership Telework Exchange also reveals an increase in productivity by participants and reports satisfaction with their teleworking experience. 2,286 federal and private sector employees as well as 1,765 state employees participated in Telework Day in Virginia, for a total of 4,051 participants statewide. Eighty-one percent of participating state employees said they had teleworked before, compared to 78 percent of respondents nationwide, showing that Virginia's efforts to promote teleworking in state government have been successful. The report illustrates the potential impact of teleworking on employees' budgets and productivity, as well as the environment. If all eligible employees teleworked one day per week for a year, teleworkers in the Commonwealth would collectively avoid driving 602 million miles, remove 360,800 tons of pollutants from the air, and save $807 million in commuting costs. Over the course of a year this would equal a $1,822 annual raise for every teleworker in Virginia, and save 46 hours a year in commuting. A survey of Virginia's teleworkers also showed that 69 percent felt they accomplished more than a typical day at the office and 91 percent said that they would be more likely to telework again as a result of their experience. Seventy-eight percent of respondents reported no difficulties in performing their duties on Telework Day.

CTIA's Largent Outlines Policy Priorities

CTIA President Steve Largent says the lobbying organization will use the Federal Communications Commission's recently announced notices of inquiry on innovation and competition in the mobile marketplace to share his industry's success story. Congress and smaller telecom firms have asked the FCC to investigate whether firms like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel are unfairly dominating the space. Largent points out that wireless prices continue to fall; 95 percent of U.S. consumers have a choice of three or more carriers; consumer satisfaction is up and complaints are down. CTIA is lobbying hard for regulators to make available more spectrum.

Bush Records Fully Digitized Later This Month

The National Archives is well on its way to loading the electronic records of President George W. Bush into its digitized collection. To date, more than 85 percent of the total volume has been ingested. The incorporation of Bush administration records is the second stage of five increments planned for the electronic records archives. The Presidential Records Act gives the Archives legal custody of the records and the task of responding to special access requirements at the end of an administration. The project should be complete by late September. Presidential records become subject to Freedom of Information Act requests five years after the end of an administration.

The smart grid opportunity

The smart grid may just become the next big opportunity for providers of both telecom services and equipment — the questions are when and how much. According to Cisco Systems, when it announced its plans to offer smart grid solutions, the smart grid communications infrastructure market is expected to generate as much as $20 billion per year by 2013 — a sizeable sum that could benefit many providers of telecom solutions.Why? Because a high-speed, highly-secure, two-way, IP-based, fully integrated communications architecture that addresses the backbone, metro and last mile (also referred to as spur) segments of the network is key to the smart grid. It is this network that enables real-time information and control, to allow every part of the grid to both "talk" and "listen" from the substation to — and into — the customer premises.

FCC's Annual Telecom Industry Report

The Federal Communications Commission released its annual report providing a general overview of revenues in the US telecommunications industry. According to the report, the industry in 2007 reported $299 billion in revenues - a small increase from 2006's $297 billion. The report also shows dramatic shifts in the way universal service support is funded, reflecting the changing level of revenues reported by various sectors of the industry over the past decade. Other findings include: Wireless industry revenues grew 5% during 2007, from $115 billion to $121 billion. Total toll service revenues increased during 2007 - from $64 billion to $65 billion. Telecommunications revenues for incumbent local exchange carriers decreased to $94 billion in 2007, down from $100 billion in 2006. Incumbent local exchange carriers reported that $90 billion of the $94 billion total was for providing fixed local exchange services. Non-incumbent local exchange carriers reported $23 billion of fixed local exchange service revenue for 2007. This represented a 5% growth from the 2006 total.

FCC Seeks Comment on Recommendations for the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference

On September 1, 2009, the World Radiocommunication Conference Advisory Committee (WRC-11 Advisory Committee) approved and provided for Federal Communications Commission consideration its recommendations on a number of issues that will be considered by the 2011 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-11). The FCC's International Bureau has tentatively concluded the FCC can support the recommendations and is now seeking comment on the recommendations. The comments provided by interested parties will assist the FCC in its upcoming consultations with the U.S. Department of State and National Telecommunications and Information Administration in the development of U.S. positions for WRC-11. The deadline for comments on the proposed preliminary views is September 25, 2009.

Benton

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